If you are new to the forums, you must register a free account before you can post. The forums have a separate registration from the rest of www.chronofhorse.com, so your log in information for one will not automatically work for the other. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are the views of the individual and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of The Chronicle of the Horse.

I saw something today I could go a lifetime w/out seeing. UPDATE!!

I live in Palm Springs, CA and am surrounded by cowboys/charros (some old school, not in a good way) and see a lot of "interesting" things in my travels to the barn. For example, the other day I was driving home from the barn and as I was scooting down the highway, about 7 charros trotted/galloped up to the edge of the road from the desert. Well, wow, that was... something I NEVER saw back east! They stopped at the roads edge, but it was kind of freaky to see.

Ok, so today I am on the way home from the barn which is on the other side of 10 from Palm Springs... it's less populated over there, therefore, more horses/ranches. So I round the corner and come over a little hll when I see flashing lights and what looks like a horse standing there. As I get closer, I see that the horse is standing on the back of a flat bed truck, tied to a metal bar that was welded on the truck, it was tied with a piece of baling twine! The guy was transporting this poor skinny horse on an OPEN flat bed truck, nothing at all around the flat bed to even kind of protect the horse, not that it would be much of a protection, he was just out in the open... he could have lost his footing and been dragged down the road. The horse was so skinny, and, even more suprising, he was just standing there. Thankfully Animal Protective Services had stopped him and it looked like they were holding the guy there, not allowing him to take the horse further. I cried! I think I am forever scarred now. How aweful and thoughtless. I still can't believe what I saw, it will give me nightmares.

When I was younger it wasn't unusual to see a small horse in a pick up bed...but there were framed taller sides on the truck bed. Not saying it looked safe, but I simply can't imagine a horse standing on a flat bed.
The barn where I grew up sold a small shetland pony once...the new owners picked it up in the back of an older station wagon! The odd thing was, she fit.

You jump in the saddle,
Hold onto the bridle!
Jump in the line!
...Belefonte

I LIKE to think that even if I weren't a horse owner of 40 yrs that my common sense would steer me away from putting a horse on a flatbed. Wouldn't that just automatically seem like a very dangerous thing to do after thinking it over for a minute? Do ppl really have that much of a lack of common sense? I have never thought that as a whole, our country is overly endowed with just plain common sense, but I never would have thought things were as bad as they apparently are. I have never seen a horse on a flatbed or in a pickup living here in the northeast and have been around since 59. Never, once. Huh? Well, once again , I have learned something here today, and it isn't even 10 am yet.

When I was in school in the mountains of NC I saw a guy with two draft horses in the back of a dump truck hauling them down the mountain. He had tied them to a bar behind the cab and the two of them were riding with their heads above the cab, forelocks blowing in the wind acting like they did it every weekend.

I have a mini donkey that I brought home in a full size van when I bought him. He sat like a dog with his butt on their couch and his front feet on the floor the whole way home. I keep stopping and pulling this large tarp I had bought over the couch so he wouldn't soil it. I never dreamed he would rather sit on the couch. I was concerned with keeping the van floor clean when I got the tarp. The lady who raises them has over 400 and said she always travels with them in her van. Said nothing about them liking couches. He would be very happy living here in the house with us if I would let him. But since Echo is just too big to be a house horse he will just have to stay outside and keep her company.

20 years ago we lived way up in the mountains in tobacco country. The land is very steep and many people used mules to work their tobacco plots-too steep for tractors. It was common to see mules and draft horses in the backs of pick ups-the big ones had to stand caddy cornered to fit.

We drove to my parents (Lancaster, CA) this weekend and I had a similar experience. Guy in a flatbed truck towing a horsetrailer. As we get closer it's a small (like really old) 2 horse straight load w/so much horseflesh in it you can see bulges out every opening. AND on the back of the flatbed was a pony in a dog crate. Not a tiny pony, a smashed into the big dog crate, couldn't pick its head up, PONY!!. This was heading down I-5 at 60 MPH. I called the sherriff dept. Wonder what they did?
As we pulled into Lancaster on the side of Hwy 138 (I mean right on the side) were 2 small thin horses tied to a trailer. The one on the road side had a hackamore on that was tied to the saddle horn so tightly that he had his nose in his chest, and the bottom of the hackamore is what he was tied to the trailer with. Out past the horsetrailer were men roping goats, so I guess this horse was just waiting his turn?!?
Not a good day for the priceless and wonderful steeds...

I grew up in AZ. in the 60's and literally 1000's of ranch horses were hauled in the back of pickups all the time. Never used a flat bed myself but know ranchers that did.

I like to think that there were at least stock sides on the pickups....
It would sure be nice to see the guy go for a ride on the back of a flatbed with nothing to hang onto at highway speeds - I bet he'd see life differently pretty quickly - not to mention that encountering any bugs or gravel flying up at that speed.
Dee

You won't want to see horses in other countries then. I've seen them in Mexico in the bed of pickups, Hanging over the roof of the truck, all lean, dry dull coated and skinny, not an extra ounce of flesh on them. Or the poor skinny, dull eyed creatures you can find in some of the Caribbean countries. Horses don't have such a good life in some places.

For example, the other day I was driving home from the barn and as I was scooting down the highway, about 7 charros trotted/galloped up to the edge of the road from the desert. Well, wow, that was... something I NEVER saw back east! They stopped at the roads edge, but it was kind of freaky to see.

Umm, I'm having a bit of trouble understanding just what is so shocking in this part of the story?

"She still had all of her marbles, though every one of them was shaped funny and rolled asymmetrically."